A Phantom Troupe Christmas

December 25th

Shizuku kicked her legs back and forth as she read a new book, she flipped the pages and gasped as she saw a beautiful picture of a fat man in red with a large contraption of a similar color. The contraption was linked by chained animals, brown deer like creatues who pulled the ungrounded vehicle. Shizuku tilts her head, she flips the book upside down, thinking she was looking at the picture wrong and that if she turned it, she would understand this puzzle. She stared at it for a while, before sighing "This is a good trick."

Shizuku rips the page out of the book, throwing it to the floor a few feet below her, she flips through more pages and rips the pictures out, then the pages themselves. Franklin opens his eyes, hearing a distant sound which at first resembles scratching to him. He stands up and walks towards the sounds, realizing the closer he gets to it, that it is instead ripping. His mind swirls with ideas as to what is the source of these sounds-mayhaps Hisoka is ripping up an innocent animal, perhaps it was just a stray rat or something harmless. Franklin looks to a well-lit room, which was great contrast in comparison to the dark hallways he was walking in. He leans to his left and looks into the room to see Shizuku rip up a book.

Franklin stands up in the doorway and speaks. "Why are you ripping that up?"

Shizuku turns to Franklin, her expression blank. She blinks, her chestnut brown eyes look to the remains of the shredded book in her hands, she tilts her head, confused. "I dunno...what is this?"

Franklin walks into the room and looks at the shreds. "This is a book, you were ripping it, Shizuku."

Shizuku: "No I wasn't, why would I do that anyway?"

Franklin: "I don't know, but you..." Franklin knew that Shizuku had forgotten what she was doing anyway-it was futile. He shrugged. "Nevermind..I was wrong."

Shizuku: "I knew it."

Franklin looks at the book.

'I can't make out much, but from the larger pictures, it looks like a Seasonal Book-might be a Traditional one due to the use of pastel reds, gold and light blues.'

Franklin: "Hmmm...Do you know where you got this book?"

Shizuku looked up from a book.

'Well, she found a replacemnt rather quickly.'

Shizuku: "No, I don't know...I just picked it up as shreds."

Franklin: "Well...hmmm...alright."

'There's no use to press her about this anymore, she doesn't believe that she had the book, she thinks it was always shreds and that she just so happened to stumble upon it. Oh, well.'

Franklin stands to leave, he sees a shadow rush by the doorway in his peripheral. He tucks the shreds in his sleeves.

Shizuku: "Why are you taking that junk, Franklin?"

Franklin: "I want to know more about this book and talk to this Intruder..." Franklin frowns, walking away and following the shadow. The tall, dark figure lurched forward, it wobbled forward before falling to the ground. Franklin looked down at the unconscious figure, as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he noticed the "Intruder" was an eyebrowless blonde in Ancient attire.

Franklin: "Phinks?"

The blonde groans, frowning-Franklin places his right hand on Phinks' shoulder and pushes him for a few times.

'He's not responding, anymore...' Franklin's eyes widen, he shakes Phinks more violently, causing him to roll over on his back. 'His muscles aren't tensing, he's barely breathing, his heartrate is slowing and he won't open his eyes or say anything. What happened to you, Phinks?' Franklin grits his teeth and places his right hand underneath Phinks' cranium and his left hand is underneath the backs of Phinks' knees. He lifts him up off the ground and retraces his steps, Shizuku out of her room and in the middle of the hallway.

Shizuku:"What happened?"

Franklin:"I can't tell for sure, he isn't responsive and was having trouble walking."

Shizuku walks to Franklin and holds her hands out, Franklin understands and hands Phinks over to her. She walks down the hall, Franklin follows her, she stops in front of a door and Franklin opens said door. Shizuku walks into Phinks' room and lays him down upon his own bed.

Shizuku: "Franklin, turn on the lights." Franklin flicks the light switch up with his index finger. Shizuku looks to Phinks' face, Franklin walks forward only to stop after hearing retching,hearing a collection of liquid fall upon his shoes. Franklin closes his eyes, saying nothing. He backs away and stays by the wall.

Shizuku:"He's been poisoned by alcohol."

Franklin:"Hmm? He just drunk too much?" Shizuku nods.

Shizuku:"He'll be fine, he just needs to rest, drink plenty of fluids and refrain from drinking alcohol for a while."

Franklin nods, understanding.

Nobunaga opens his eyes, snow encasing him. He feels a painful cold upon his chest, seeping to his very innards,his lungs struggle against the friggid pain. His eyes dart from left to right as his sealed mouth fights to open, a wall of fire seen to his right, screaming echoing through the night. He winces as more snow is pilled upon him, his vision blurs, tears stream from his face. His body imobilized, an agonizing pain building into his chest, he opens his mouth, ripping his lips-he takes in a breath and screams, snow blocking his mouth abruptly-cutting his scream off.

The screams continue, Nobunaga grits his teeth,unable to block the terrors out. "You will pay for this-do you hear me? I'll find you!" Nobunaga glares before him, seeing the snow, ignoring the burning pain upon his skin, the wheezing from his labored lungs, the stinging pain from his wounds. "I will make you pay-Hisoka!"

Author's Note: I tried something different and looked around for anything similar to my idea for this Christmas Day, I didn't find any like this and decided to go with this and add on to it, going with the flow of my imagination. I'll try to update when I can, since this was really short.